The bending curvatures of tri-material plates have been measured using in situ laser reflection technique at temperatures ranging from 20°C to 160°C. The tri-material structures are formed by attaching silicon wafers to ceramic substrates with die-attach adhesives from solder-like (elastic modulus ≈ 24 GPa) to gel-like (elastic modulus ≈ 0.003 GPa) characteristics. The temperature dependence of curvature as a result of the thermal expansion mismatch is measured. The structure bonded by the gel-like adhesive has substantially lower, about a factor of ten less, bending than the structures attached by the other two types of adhesives. We found good agreements between the measurements and the theoretical derivations by Suhir[1] for the bending curvature of finite tri-material assembly.

The residual stress in silicon substrates after local thermal oxidation is discussed experimentally using microscopic Raman spectroscopy. The stress distribution in the silicon substrate is determined by three main factors: volume expansion of newly grown silicon–dioxide, deflection of the silicon–nitride film used as an oxidation barrier, and mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients between silicon and silicon dioxide.

Tensile stress increases with the increase of oxide film thickness near the surface of the silicon substrate under the oxide film without nitride film on it. The tensile stress is sometimes more than 100 MPa. On the other hand, a complicated stress change is observed near the surface of the silicon substrate under the nitride film. The tensile stress increases initially, as it does in the area without nitride film on it. However, it decreases with the increase of oxide film thickness, then the compressive stress increases in the area up to 170 MPa. This stress change is explained by considering the drastic structural change of the oxide film under the nitride film edge during oxidation.

The effects of bulk plastic deformation of mercuric iodide (HgI2), upon electronic properties which are relevant to the performance of HgI2 as a radiation detector, were examined experimentally. Hole lifetimes, as well as hole and electron mobilities, were measured at various stages of sample deformation. Hole lifetimes decreased by a factor of 2 under strains of several percent; carrier mobilities did not change significantly, except during creep loading where electron and hole mobilities decreased by about 65% and 25%, respectively. Additionally, dark current measurements were made on specimens with varying degrees of accumulated plastic strain; dark current values did not strongly reflect the extent of plastic damage in deformed specimens.

The experimental mechanics of microelectronics components requires high spatial resolution measurements that are best obtained by using the scanning microscope because of the high spacial resolution and depth of field obtained using this instrument. This paper describes how measurements made from photographs taken in the scanning electron microscope have been used successfully to determine the strains which develop due to differences in coefficient of thermal between various parts of microelectronic components. Results are presented for thermal strains in the solder joints of a surface mounted component and in a printed circuit board plated through hole.

The fracture twist test is used to obtain the statistical fracture strength distribution for 10-cm square single crystal and polycrystalline silicon wafers cut with a high-power Nd:YAG laser. Tensile wafer edge stresses at fracture are calculated using nonlinear finite element analysis, and the model results are used to examine the limitations of linear torsion and plate theories. The basic hypothesis is that fracture strength of laser-cut wafers is limited by microcracks formed by large residual tensile stresses produced in the cut edge upon cooling after cutting. Differences are found between single crystal CZ and polycrystalline EFG silicon material Weibull parameters characterizing the fracture strength distribution. These indicate that there is a statistical influence of material variables on the fracture strength of the EFG silicon, which lowers its strength and increases the variance of fracture response in comparison to single crystal silicon.

The method for the direct measurement of subcritical crack growth in silica optical fiber with 125μm in diameter was developed. The obtained crack velocity da/dt as a function of stress intensity factor KI was expressed by means of log da/dt vs log KI linear relation with slope n. The obtained value of n showed 22.6 (25 °C,60%r.h.) with small standard deviation 0.7. These results indicate that the postulated crack growth law used for the lifetime prediction is valid and the present approach can solve the problem in the conventional method for evaluating the value of n where the evaluated value has been widely scattered.

Temperature depepdences of ultrasound velocity V and sound attenuation Q−1,the unit cell parameters a, b, c, and volume W were studied between 77 and 800 K for bismuth cuprates like Bi2Sr2Can−1 CUnO2n+2+8 with n = 1,2,3 (phases: 2201, 2212, and 2223). Acoustic spectra of textured and isotropic samples show anomalies (bending points,extrema, breaks, and splitting of resonance frequency) which are considered as a result of thermostimulated processes - phase transitions of I and II kinds, emergence of substructures in the cuprate lattices - in a system of solid solutions of the mentioned phases. Mechanical properties of the studied systems are observed to be very sensitive to a thermal prehistory (temperature and time ranges of thermocycling).

Both energy and load required to fracture the material are important quantities and they are not necessarily related to each other as suggested by the fracture mechanics of brittle materials. For example, the difference of the failure behavior between the semi-brittle ABS polymer and the ductile Al 6061-TO can be well characterized by a pre-fracture energy E0 (Joule/m) and a fracture energy Ef (Joule/m2 ). Al 6061-TO has much higher values of E0 and EF than the ABS polymer. This accounts for the ductility of Al 6061-TO. However, the applied stress intensity factor KIapp for both materials are similar. The reason is that their plastic zones have similar shielding effects, even though Aluminum has dislocations and the ABS polymer has cavities and crazes.

The yield strength of metallic thin films bonded to hard substrates can be significantly higher than is customary for bulk samples of the same metal. This is related to the constrained nature of the deformation. The constrained deformation, as well as the commonly observed crystallographic texture of thin films, places restrictive conditions on the mechanisms of deformation that produce stress relaxation. In narrow aluminum based metallizations used as interconnects in large scale integrated circuits thermal stress induced voiding provides an effective means for stress relaxation. For these interconnects, the stress state is tensile after excursions to higher temperatures; the stresses relax mainly by dislocation glide and grain boundary sliding during the cooldown, while the longer term relaxation is governed by stress-induced voiding and dislocation creep.

The stress induced failure of passivated aluminum based metallizations is the combined result of the stress induced void nucleation and growth of voids. The present work investigates the dependence of the void nucleation on aging temperature and cooling rate. Narrow Al, Al(0.2%Cu) and Al(2%Si) lines of different widths were fabricated by lift-off and passivated with various thicknesses of Si3N4. After a 400°C anneal, the specimens were cooled directly to the selected aging temperature and aged for up to 1100 hours. Void nucleation was found to occur predominantly during the initial cool-down. The rate of nucleation varied in quite different ways with the combination of aging temperature and cooling rate for the different alloys, which is consistent with a grain boundary sliding controlled nucleation mechanism.

The stress induced growth of individual voids in passivated Al-lines at room temperature was monitored in-situ without removing the passivation. The kinetics was strongly influenced by variations in line gec.etry, even over distances of many Am, indicating variations in the stress relaxation as well.

High tensile stresses develop in passivated aluminum line metallizations on silicon substrates after excursion to elevated temperatures. The principal mechanisms to relax these stresses at room temperature are plastic deformation and grain boundary void growth. It is shown that stress relaxation and void growth are intimately connected.

Stress relaxation was studied in bare and nitride-covered continuous films and narrow lines of aluminum. The rate of relaxation in unpassivated metallizations is shown to be consistent with a dislocation-controlled mechanism. Relaxation in passivated lines appears to depend on grain boundary diffusion-controlled void growth. In passivated continuous films, two rate-controlling mechanisms appear to operate in sequence.

It is well known that the grain size of interconnections made from aluminum alloys affects electromigration and stressmigration tolerance. The hardness of three kinds of aluminum alloys is measured and it is shown that it has a strong correlation between the grain size of the aluminum alloy films. Stressmigration testing is done for those aluminum alloy films and it is found that the SM tolerance of aluminum films can be judged by the hardness of the films. Electromigration testing is also done and the results also confirm the correlation between EM tolerance and hardness of the aluminum films. Hardness measurements are simple and have the possibility of rough estimation of EM and SM tolerance. This method have the merit of saving time for life test.

Even at room temperature, solder joints exhibit both creep and fatigue behavior that is strongly dependent on solder joint configuration, the thermal environment, and the solder alloy properties. The microstructures of solder joints with up to 25 years of aging have been studied using SEM/EDS and metallographic techniques. Data are presented on grain growth and metallurgical composition versus aging time. A special non-linear finite element creep-fatigue simulation model has been developed, based on measured strain-rate hardness relationships, and used to analytically predict the effects of observed metallurgical changes and the effects of lead stiffness in solder joint creepfatigue interaction. To corroborate the analytical results, a special bi-metallic test fixture has been developed to accelerate the thermo-mechanical loading of solder joints in thermal cycling environments. Measured time-to-failure data for various electronicpackage lead configurations/stiffnesses, including gullwing and J-lead, are presented and shown to be in reasonable agreement with the analytical results.

A non-linear finite element model has been used to simulate hillock formation in an aluminum interconnect structure. The hillock formation is caused by the thermal expansion mismatch between aluminum and the surrounding SiO2 passivation. Using the ABAQUS software [1], a large strain elastic-plastic-creep analysis was done. The results showed there were stresses large enough to cause yield and permanent deformation of the aluminum interconnect.

Silver-glass die attach adhesives provide a cost effective means of producing high reliability parts which can withstand the environmental testing required of electronic components. One step processing of these adhesives provides the additional advantages of increased throughput and processing flexibility compared to eutectically bonded assemblies.

This paper describes the performance of a one step silver-glass die attach adhesive processed under various time and temperature conditions. The effect of peak firing temperature and dwell time on the ultimate tensile strength of the adhesive will be discussed. Tensile data from parts subjected to thermal shock, thermal cycle and high temperature aging will be presented as an indication of the material's long term reliability.